We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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The Ethical Philosophy Selector is an amusing attempt to see what a person’s philosophical influences are. Many blogs seem to be taking the test so I thought “what the heck”… My results leave me rather bemused given my dislike for Sartre.
1. Rand (100%)
2. Mill (90%)
3. Sartre (75%)
4. Epicureans (73%)
5. Kant (73%)
6. Nietzsche (70%)
7. Bentham (69%)
8. Prescriptivism (65%)
9. Aristotle (61%)
10. Stoics (60%)
11. Aquinas (59%)
12. Hume (56%)
13. Augustine (53%)
14. Plato (48%)
15. Spinoza (48%)
16. Cynics (47%)
17. Hobbes (47%)
18. Ockham (33%)
19. Noddings (23%)
BraWarstm! Nice Will Vehrs over on Blog Watch 2 makes a request for a Valentine Day Party report and next thing I know I have caused an international incident. So do Megan and I get those cool light-sabre thingies?
Just call me Chaos Girl 
There is nothing to the rumour that mentioning BRITNEY SPEARS increases the hit rate for a blog.
Blog me baby one more time!
Miss Veen has a series of sublime cat haiku which will be immediately recognisable to people who live with cats. For example:
The rule for today.
Touch my tail, I shred your hand.
New rule tomorrow.
Blur of motion, then-
Silence, me, a paper bag
What is so funny?
Small brave carnivores
Kill pine cones and mosquitos
Fear vacuum cleaner.
Read them all. Meow.
“Don’t you ‘honey’ me, you worthless fuzz-ball you do nothing except lie around all day swatting flies and telling stupid jokes to all your moron pals while I have to strip all the meat and feed the kids. Have you ever lifted so much as a paw to clean this cage? My mother warned me about you, she said you were no good…”
[Thanks to dear friend and Samizdata reader Ed Collins for supplying the photo]
Perry, question. Did not one of your dead relatives preside over the manufacture of an airplane named like the above? Was it not one of those post-war jet-propelled contrivances with a pod in the middle for the driver and the engine, and then two sort of strut things going backwards from the two wings to support the tail, in the manner of those flaps they have on the back of grand prix cars?
If I’m right about this, and following on from David Carr’s outing of himself and myself as vampires, do we not have a collective name for us all, or at least for David and me? Yes I think I finally have an answer, after more than half a century, to that Question you always get asked in bars and at parties: “What do you do?”
“I am a de Havilland Vampire.”
[Tentatively attributed to William DeBuvitz]
The August 2000 fire at the Los Alamos Laboratory had one significant consequence. A secret scientific document, discovered in a bunker whose security systems were mostly destroyed by the fire, was leaked to the public last weekend. Actually it reveals nothing that we didn’t already suspect. But it does show that the government has known all along that, besides arsenic, lead, mercury, radon, strontium and plutonium, one more extremely deadly and pervasive element also exists. This startling new discovery — the heaviest element now known to science — has been tentatively named GOVERNMENTIUM (Gv).
Conspiracy theorists speculate that Governmentium has been in existence since the time of the Manhattan Project or even the Philadelphia Experiment, and kept top-secret by the CIA. Perhaps its existence accounts for the explosive growth of bureaucracy over the last half-century. This astonishing element has no protons or electrons, thus having an atomic number of 0. It does, however, have 1 neutron, 15 assistant neutrons, 35 deputy neutrons, 80 vice neutrons, 145 supervisory neutrons, 165 team leader neutrons and 225 consulting neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 666.
These 666 particles are held together in the nucleus by a force that involves the continuous exchange of meson-like particles called “MORONS”, themselves surrounded by vast and undeterminable quantities of lepton-like particles called PEONS. Since it has no electrons, Governmentium is INERT. However, it can be detected chemically as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. According to the discoverers, a miniscule amount of Governmentium causes a reaction which would normally take less than a second over four days to complete. Unlike all other known elements, Governmentium does not decay measured according to its half-life, but instead undergoes continuous reorganization in which assistant neutrons, deputy neutrons and vice neutrons exchange places, causing a sample mass of Governmentium to actually INCREASE over time since with each reorganization some of the PEONS inevitably become MORONS, and, finally, neutrons, thereby forming entirely new isotopes. This characteristic of PEON-MORON promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Governmentium is formed whenever MORONS anywhere reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as the “CRITICAL MORASS.”
Governmentium has been found to concentrate in certain key locations such as governments, large corporations, and especially in universities. It can usually be found polluting the best appointed and best maintained buildings. Scientists warn that Governmentium is known to be toxic and recommend plenty of alcoholic fluids followed by bed rest after even low levels of exposure.
Perry left out the best bit of Ken Layne’s comments, namely:
“I also want to blow up that planet of Furbies who ruined the third Star Wars movie … before PETA gets over there. The PETA ship will come out of hyperspace and find nothing but pelts floating around.”
I find that so inspiring.
“First they came for the Jews and I did nothing because I am not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did nothing because I am not a Communist.
Then they came for the Catholics and I did nothing because I am not a Catholic.
Then they came for the Lawyers and I could not stop laughing”
Natalija Radic (2002)
Seeing as how Perry has posted pictures of me on Samizdata, it seems only reasonable that I should post one of him… so here is he and his lawyer. I have not met David Carr so perhaps the lawyer is him. I will leave you to figure out which of them is which.
 Perry and his lawyer
Which is nothing to do with herpes, I assure you.
I just want to say that I am deeply annoyed by the remarks made in the letter from Peter Barker below. This man actually expects to be subsidised to enable him to buy his weapons of choice. Well, I have just one message for your, Mr.Barker: if you want a state-of-the-art fighter-bomber then you just jolly-well get a job, save up your money and buy it yourself. Sponger!!
[Editor: in the crazed Mr. Barker’s defence, he was only appealing for private sector investors, not state aid, in the matter of financing his purchase of the required armoured vehicle and (single) tactical nuclear device. Peter, my cheque is in the mail. Is this going to be a time-share kind of deal: I get the play with the nuke while you drive the tank?]
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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